Category Archives: Indigenous Nations

Indigenous Nations, Tourism

Gorge Harbour Marina Undergoing Renovations

Gorge Harbour Marina is undergoing extensive renovations this year. The general store, marina and gas pump is open, but much of the resort is expected to remain closed until 2024.

General Manager Jason Johnson explained, “We had a fairly successful last season and then became even more aware  of some major infrastructure issues needing to be addressed. It wasn’t just a matter of ‘it’s a septic issue,’ or ‘it’s a water issue,’ or ‘it’s an electric issue” – it’s all of it. We are having to take a look at some major infrastructure at the Gorge with the understanding that the property has a lot of age behind it. So we really need to take a look at that and press the pause button.”

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Environment, Indigenous Nations

‘We should avoid monitoring’: feds quietly backed off while Coastal GasLink pipeline work killed fish

By Matt Simmons, The Narwhal, Local Journalism Initiative reporter

On a dreary gray day in late October, passers by gawked at a scene outside a hotel in Smithers, B.C. The charred remnants of several trucks sat in the parking lot in the wake of what police described as a “targeted attack” in the pre-dawn hours of the morning. 

Among the blackened wreckage were four police cruisers — marked and unmarked vehicles with the RCMP’s Community-Industry Response Group, a special task force assigned to police opposition to industrial projects. The controversial RCMP unit maintains a constant presence on Wet’suwet’en yintah (territory) where Coastal GasLink (CGL) is building a pipeline without the consent of the nation’s Hereditary Chiefs. 

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Indigenous Nations, Politics

City Councillor reflects on lessons learned so far on potential Powell River name change

Content warning: This story discusses colonial history and its negative impacts on Indigenous people of Canada.

CKTZ News, through an LJI grant from Canada-info.ca

In upcoming Powell River City Council strategic planning meetings, Coun. Cindy Elliott looks forward to making decisions on recommendations from the Joint Working Group she participated in last year.

The group was set up following an official name change request to the municipality in May 2021 by the Tla’amin Nation Executive Council. Powell River currently carries the name of Dr. Israel Wood Powell, who was the first BC Superintendent of Indian Affairs and instrumental in the implementation of colonial practices and structures such as residential schools.

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Energy, Indigenous Nations

Land defenders build tipi along TMX construction route in ‘Burnaby’

By Aaron Hemens, The Discourse, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

As the January rain falls around her, Khursten Bullock carefully approaches a tipi that was recently assembled alongside the Trans-Canada highway in “Burnaby.” 

The structure, emblazoned with a “Stop TMX” sign, interrupts the 1,150-km path of the still-unfinished Trans Mountain expansion project (TMX) — part of an ongoing effort with the environmental group Protect the Planet to set up camps along the pipeline route.

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Indigenous Nations, Politics

SRD territorial acknowledgements; Should Tla’amin be included? 

The Strathcona Regional District (SRD) officially recognizes 10 First Nations within their boundaries, but the Tla’amin are not among them. 

While Mansons Landing and Marina Island are both within their traditional area, the Tla’amin First Nation ceded their claim to most of this area when they signed a treaty in 2014. They retain a small parcel on Cortes Island, and thus still possess land within the SRD.

This question was part of a larger discussion at the inaugural meeting of the SRD’s First Nations committee, on Wednesday Jan 25. 

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